footwearinsight.com March/April 2019 ~ Footwear Insight • 21
Vivobarefoot / Magna Trail / MSRP $210
Bearpaw / Elle Tall (left) and Elle Short
Sole / Chukka
Birkenstock / Gizeh (left) and Florida
meaning that consumers are more compelled than ever to
support brands that align with their values and lifestyle,"
Wedhammar says. "In this case, people love animals, and
so do we."
But beyond that, brands cited both consumer demand
for and their own internal goals for sustainable production
as the motivation for changes.
"Comfort and eco-friendly materials are important to
our consumers," Simas says.
"Every time we have a focus group, we hear about how
important sustainability is to our consumers," Wedhammar adds.
What Materials Are Changing The Game?
But advancing sustainability in vegan products will necessitate exploring new
materials. (As Osness points out, the two aims are often "mutually exclusive:
many synthetic leathers and foams are petrochemical based and have significant
negative environmental impact.")
Vivobarefoot's Clark said that replacing oil-based synthetics with those made
of renewable resources like bioplastics will be critical for the brand to meet its
goal of having 90 percent of its line be made of sustainable materials by 2020. In
2017, the brand introduced a shoe made of Bloom foam, a cushioning material that
blends EVA with algae. This year, it introduced the Primus Bio shoe, which uses
Susterra, a bio TPU derived from corn that makes up 60 percent of the outsole
